Heretofore, musical performances (instrumental and vocal) have been marketed in the form of records or compact disks (CD), movies have been marketed in the form of video tapes, art or literature such as comics, cartoons, novels, and the like have been marketed in the form of publications, and computer software has been marketed in the form of software packages.
Musical performances marketed in the form of a CD will be explained hereinbelow as an example. In the explanation given hereinbelow “a copyright holder” and “a neighboring right holder” are the terms employed in the Copyright Act of Japan. In other countries, the meaning of those terms can be interpreted based on the Copyright Laws of those countries.
Because a huge cost is associated with the manufacture and circulation of CDs, the earnings received by the composer or songwriter who are the copyright holders or by the performer who is a neighboring right holder assume a tiny fraction of the total cost of sold CDs. Furthermore, in recent years, if a performance was given by a small group of performers, the performance recording could be conducted by the performers themselves in a simple manner, without using a studio, recording equipment, and recording engineers of special recording companies, and though such a recording was sold as is, in most cases the recording could be good enough for listening. However, when such recordings were carried into a circulation channel as the usual CDs, the earnings of the recording entity (a record manufacturer per Copyright Law of Japan), copyright holders, and performers may be very small.
For example, regarding musical performances, a music distribution method has recently been suggested, this method comprises the steps of converting a musical performance into digital information and distributing it to a system of a purchaser via the internet. With such a method, a musical performance is converted into digital information, the digitalized musical performance is stored on a server connected to a network representing the internet, and the digitalized musical performance is then transmitted to the system of the purchaser from the server via the network. The purchaser can reproduce and appreciate the musical performance in their system. Publications can be similarly distributed via a network in the form of electronic publications. Computer software has been regularly distributed via networks. Though movies that have been circulated as video tapes have a very large volume of information, the increase in network speed and improvement of information compression technology gradually make it possible to distribute the movies via the networks.
In the case of a performance recorded by the copyright holder or performer and a recording entity associated therewith, the recording can be converted into a digital format and loaded in the form of web pages on a web server connected to the internet. The web pages as referred to herein may be web pages operated by the recording entities themselves or web pages operated by the administrators managing the music distribution. A purchaser wishing to purchase the music downloads the music converted into a digital format from the web page into their system and pays a compensation therefor. When web pages are used that are operated by the recording entities themselves, the received payment can be allocated to the copyright holder, performer and recording entities. When web pages are used that are operated by the administrators managing the music distribution, part of the payment can be also allocated to the administrators. In both cases, the cost of managing the web page is quite small by comparison with the manufacture and circulation of CDs. Therefore, the share of earnings received by intellectual contents providers such as copyright holders, performers, and recording entities is much higher than that obtained from circulation of CDs, and the share of earnings can be increased even if the sale price is reduced.
As described hereinabove, employing a method for distributing the digitalized intellectual contents (recorded musical performances, copies of art, literature, comics, cartoons, recorded images such as movies, computer software, and the like) makes it possible to sell the products at a very low circulation cost.
However, the essence and specific features of the intellectual contents cannot be made known to the general public by merely uploading the intellectual contents converted into a digital form in a web page. The frequency at which the public accesses the web page can be increased by registering in a widely-known internet search system. However, it is difficult to arouse a sufficient purchasing interest by only public advertisement loaded on a web page. Moreover, when proceeds from sales from a web page only serve as a revenue source, sufficient revenues cannot be obtained before the intellectual contents become publicly known and the number of purchasers increases. For this reason, management of the distribution web page and actions of the intellectual contents providers such as copyright holders, performers, recording entities, and the like cannot be conducted smoothly.